The AuctionBytes Blog has been giving a voice to online merchants since its launch in 2005. Named one of the world's top 30 blogs in 2008 by "Blogging Heroes." Weigh in with your thoughts on the joys and pitfalls of selling online.

By: David Steiner

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Feedback on eBay certainly has taken a few left turns since Pierre's initial concept that allowed trading partners to rate each other. In probably the most dramatic deviation, Sellers will no longer be allowed to leave Negative or Neutral feedback for Buyers. There are some other changes, which can be found here: http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/new.html but this is the most interesting paragraph:

What changes are being made to the eBay Feedback system?

There are five key elements to the new Feedback system being introduced in the first half of 2008:

1. Beginning in February, buyers and sellers will be able to earn up to one Feedback per week from the same trading partner. Today, members may only affect each other's Feedback scores one time, regardless of the number of transactions between the parties. This change will both encourage repeat transactions and reward good service. 2. Sellers will no longer be able to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers. This change will occur in May, 2008. 3. Removal of negative and neutral Feedback left by members who are suspended or who fail to respond to the Unpaid Item Process (UPI). 4. Positive Feedback percentage will be based on the past 12 months of Feedback, rather than lifetime, since it is most indicative of the seller's recent performance. 5. Restrictions on when Feedback can be left: * Buyers must wait three days before leaving negative or neutral Feedback * Instead of 90 days, members will be able to leave Feedback for 60 days

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We'll be speaking with John Donohoe later today, so if you have any specific questions, post them here before noon, and we'll try to incorporate the best ones in our interview.

Call 1-877-222-0856 and leave a 60 second message about what you think of these changes.

by: rick

Tue Jan 29 21:57:30 2008

I just started selling on ebay in hope of having my own sports card business.I sell singles and small lots with low shipping but havent needed to have delivery confirmation.Now I have to just to insure that buyer is not lying.People wont pay the extra cost for deliveryh confirmation so thanks ebay hello naxcom.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: the ultimate hack

Tue Jan 29 22:04:02 2008

Dear Alex: Thank you for upgrading the code. We shall call your code Alpha, which shall infect any seller who is dumb enough to offer any other payment than 'immediate payment with paypal', and shall call my Code Beta, to infect all sellers smart enough to know that 'immediate payment' is their only option now. Feel free to distribute both codes freely.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: fabqu

Tue Jan 29 22:18:01 2008

After 6 years - 100% feedback with 2700 unique bidders and 7000 positive feedback - I am done. I had already reduced my business with ebay by half as fees were at $600 per month. Now I am gone. Time to launch my own website and email all my lovely clients with the reasons why I am leaving Ebay. I have had just a few nasty ebayers and rarely ever left a negative feedback. Ebay is destroying Ebay. A year ago I would have grown my business - and the changes that occurred then made me rethink that. Now I see this company as a sinking ship. Goodbye!

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: auction-guru

Tue Jan 29 22:21:04 2008

Think everyone including me to really READ what was posted today from BILL COBB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801.shtml#2008-01-29054823

***A Message from Bill Cobb – New Pricing and Other News***

January 29, 2008

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: auction-guru

Tue Jan 29 22:23:44 2008

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS!!!!!!!

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801.shtml#2008-01-29054823

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: j.w.

Tue Jan 29 22:30:50 2008

I think this is totally abserd.I can see the con's, scammer, and nuts comeing out of the woodwork now.A seller has no chance with this.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Curt

Tue Jan 29 22:33:01 2008

I've weathered every change before including many fee increases, but this change to the feedback system prevents the seller from honestly rating a buyer who causes problems.

So in short, eBay is allowing a buyer extortion riot to take place. Sellers will be at the mercy of any crackpot and maybe even competitor in disguise who want to ruin someones business.

eBay is not addressing the sellers side at all. Being able to block 5000 ID's doesnt change the fact that bad buyers can cause a seller many problem after a bid is made.

Feedback is not a one way street...not every buyer gives a positive experience. Sellers need to be able to accurately rate these people.

Come May, our eBay store is closed and we will sell the majority of our stock on other websites unless the feedback policy change is dropped.

Reading eBay's seller forums, I know I am not alone.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Kimberlee Jandreau

Tue Jan 29 22:43:29 2008

Number one: I will be listing all my blocked bidders on my MySpace - other sellers, do the same so we can basically alienate all those that just are not reasonable to deal withNumber two: Leaving negative feedback for a buyer who did not read, tried to get money back because of buyer's remorse or other unreasonable terms is NOT retaliatory, it's FACT...retaliatory feedback is feedback ONLY given because you wanted to settle a scoreNumber Three: the Dispute Console is already in place for Non-Paying Bidders, why not use it for negative feedback posting ensuring that eBay can monitor possible abuseAs for those that think their wonderful 100% feedback rating is going to stand after May, think again...I've been doing it for over ten years now and while I've only gotten 4 negatives, NONE were deserved (3 never even contacted me & one both a big seller AND a buyer, left me negative even though I gave a FULL refund) - this kind of stuff will beome the norm and the days of 100% feedback rating will be long gone. Also, you can leave negative for buyers on Amazon...you can't block them, though.Check my MySpace at: www.myspace.com/kimberleelovestodance for my blocked bidder's list and my comments further

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: the ultimate hack

Tue Jan 29 22:44:09 2008

According to the link Auction Guru gave, not only will our hack give our special favorite seller negative feedback, it will lower the appearance of said sellers auction in the listing results. Way to make the hack more powerful ebay! With their listings buried in the results according to some new super secret hackable algorithm, the seller will quit that much sooner. Read that link carefully, search results may be foobared sooner than May. Be prepared to make some serious money on wall street people, bet against may 1st. $$$$$$$$

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Matt Price

Tue Jan 29 23:01:52 2008

Here are the facts:

eBay is changing this because they have a piece of paper in front of them saying that first time buyers are not coming back to eBay because of a bad buying experience.

BULL.

Buyers are having a bad buying experience because eBay can not keep the fraudsters out of the mix. You want a positive buying experience, then have the people who are selling on the damn site be licensed. They have to prove they are licensed retail, auction, or consignment. PERIOD.

Craigslist is doing more business than eBay now because of the price. Why send it to eBay where you pay your toosh off?

You want to improve the buyers experience? Kick off the people you get a complaint about. But making your entire site of sellers suffer because you *think* you know what your doing makes you look stupid.

eBay, sellers are not as dumb as you think.

I suggest you find a person who knows what is going on to explain it to you.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Anon

Tue Jan 29 23:12:01 2008

I talked with the live help and got a number for the power seller manager... Not sure if it will help but..

1-866-519-3229

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Barbara

Tue Jan 29 23:14:07 2008

''There's a strong rumor that POSITIVE FEEDBACK WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE LEFT FOR BUYERS WHEN PAYMENT IS MADE. I think Ebay is making the transition in steps, but I've heard from more than one source that this will be put in place by Ebay in the future.''

A boycott of PayPal would be better. Hit them in the pocket first. They would be unable to ''know'' when payment was made so be unable to post the positive feedback and would not be able to limit YOUR funds by putting holds on your money. Remember, Ebay was a success without PayPal when it began.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: ElPhantasmoBlanco

Tue Jan 29 23:26:11 2008

RANDOM THOUGHTS AFTER THE DUST HAS SETTLED....

---Been with ebay/paypal since 1999. Remember when the ebay slogan was ''People are basically good'' ??

---I'm old school and send a personalized message to each winner with their total and my thanks. I've noticed in the past year 15-20% of my emails returned due to a bad address.

----If a buyer can't be bothered to have their correct email address registered with ebay, chances are this will be a bad experience. So now I leave an instant negative saying ''bad email address''.

----Positively, in over 17,000 transactions in 9 years I have only had ONE check bounce, NO problems with money orders and NEVER - with my hand on the religious tome of your choosing - NEVER had a problem shipping to an Unconfirmed address with 10,000 Paypal transactions. I'm pretty sure that's the rule and not the exception, just not as sexy as some of the horror stories. Remember most people will zip through hundreds of positive feedbacks just to read the one or two negatives. C'mon - you know you do.

----If ebay wants to put so much value on DSR, then get rid of feedback all together. I don't need cutesy comments. Star ratings are fine, but get rid of the ''shipping time'' since that is absolutely out of the seller's hands. At the same time, institute Detailed Buyer Ratings. Nothing fancy - just ''Timely Payment'' and ''Ease of Communication''. Since these would be fewer, it would be easy to spot the scummy buyers. OH - and if a buyer's DBR falls below 4 stars, restrict their buying privileges for 30 days.

----I got nailed with that assinine restriction 5 weeks before Christmas due to treating neutrals as negatives. With over 200 rated transations, I found that meant the almost 70 transactions went unrated. If you want to treat neutrals as negs, you should treat unrateds as positives...Knowing those boneheaded flesh sacs in charge, they'll probably use the opportunity now to treat unrateds as negs....SORRY...

----Never used Gallery. It never affected my buying from others. If I searched and it was something I was intersted in with a low bid, I'll click and check it out.

----Biggest waste of my time on ebay is the Real estate section. Give those listings where you are only bidding on the down payment their own catagory.

Nice to do trigonomic calculations to determine new fees - but bottom line (Forget that Free Gallery BS)

Old price to list and sell a $9.99 item - 92 cents

New Price - $1.22

That says it all...Thanks

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Kevin P

Tue Jan 29 23:32:14 2008

Just pointing out the obvious here, but I hope you all realize that none of the comments here mean anything unless you go through with your threats. And that means, you know, actually getting off your complacent butts and taking your business elsewhere. Because you can shake your fists all you want, but until you throw the punches en masse it's all just an embarrassing display of theatrics. Because I can pretty much guarantee any Ebay employee reading these comments is laughing their ass off at every single one of you right about now. They've seen it many times before - the empty threats, the proclamations of doom, etc. And then it all dies down a few weeks later, everyone swallows it down, and it's business as usual all over again.

If enough of you really do pull up your roots and split that WILL have an impact on their bottom line, regardless of what others here think. Forget about class action lawsuits and spamming myspace pages and leaving angry posts on the ebay forums...or whatever other ridiculously overblown threats you're making. Just leave. Go to Amazon, or elsewhere. The only sound they're going to listen to is the rush of air created by falling profits. That's the only thing that matters. You should know this by now. Everything else is just background chatter. Either leave, or swallow. Your choice.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Alex

Tue Jan 29 23:53:14 2008

Google Checkout should be allowed on eBay by now as they have a proven track record over 12 months. if I was Google I would file a lawsuit for unfair competition as they are not allowing them and are trying to limit us to only Paypal.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: ohmigawd

Wed Jan 30 00:07:22 2008

''Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBayby: AuntieTue Jan 29 2008 19:43:24re: demands a refund or they will leave negative feedback. AND, now I can't do anything about it-either receive a negative or give them their money back.

That would be ''Feedback Extortion''

... and all you have to do to stop that kind of buyer in their tracks is forward that email to eBay and advise buyer that it is a violation of eBay policy and that you have forwarded their attempt at extortion to eBay for suitable action.''

Actually, eBay's new policy of leave feedback or we'll withhold your money for up to 21 days is Feedback Extortion. I'm thinking it rises to the level of a tort. I'm wondering about a class action. I can think of no better example of feedback extortion than eBay's new Feedback Policy that prohibits sellers from leaving anything but positive feedback.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Jerry

Wed Jan 30 00:12:39 2008

I can only say thank you to the many thoughtful responses, and to AuctionBytes for providing this forum.

One thing that eBay does not understand is that both sellers and buyers need a stable platform on which to trade. eBay seems to take delight in making as many changes as possible. Could that be the reason buyers are not returning. It is certainly one reason why I sell as little as possible on eBay now, having moved the bulk of my selling to ABE.

This feedback change is symptomatic of serious problems with eBay management. For one thing, the concept of fairness is not something eBay management is at all concerned about.

Jerry

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: ohmigawd

Wed Jan 30 00:12:54 2008

''There's a strong rumor that POSITIVE FEEDBACK WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE LEFT FOR BUYERS WHEN PAYMENT IS MADE. I think Ebay is making the transition in steps, but I've heard from more than one source that this will be put in place by Ebay in the future.''

Simple Solution = ''I no longer accept PayPal''

Better Solution = List a couple of things but use your ME page to point buyers to your other stuff.

Best Solution = Abandon eBay.

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Rupert Pupkin

Wed Jan 30 00:31:26 2008

I agree with several earlier posts above that this is all just a ''smoke-screen'' tactic by eBay to divert attention away from the real major issue: they're raising their Final Value Fee percentage from 5.25% to a whopping 8.75% (even more for items that sell for $25.01 & over!). It's just simply too outrageous & absurd to be anything but that. Do you realize that most eBay sellers are complaining about the stupid feedback rule change while completely ignoring the disgraceful new FVF hike?? And I'm sure that's exactly what eBay hoped would happen. They remember the hit they took two years ago during the last fee hike and they want to take a bit of the heat off of this one. I could be wrong but my bet is that they'll probably reverse their decision on the new feedback rule before the year is over just so they can say that they ''heard our demands and took action'' or something ridiculous like that, and try to make it look like they did us a favor while continuing to pocket their exorbitant fees. Regardless, I just sold my last few items last week (perfect timing) after 8 years of selling on eBay with 2 separate IDs with over 5,000 transactions & 100% percent glowing positive feedback on both accounts. I saw the writing on the wall years ago once eBay started to catch on. There's just way too much competition now to make it worth my time & effort. eBay was once a very special place in the late '90s & early 2000s when it wasn't yet the monster that it eventually became....but now they've gone & tinkered it to death. It's just not fun anymore (and hasn't really been for years). I guess it's true that all good things must eventually come to an end. :(Good luck to all of you with whatever you decide to do!

Upcoming Changes to Feedback on eBay

by: Beth M.

Wed Jan 30 00:31:45 2008

Can you say way too little, way too late?

Some of those changes have been asked for for quite some time by sellers - counting repeat business, for one. eBay charges sellers for EVERY trx, but only ONE counted towards our FB percentage. In effect, great sellers who gained trust and repeat business were penalized by the FB system.

The changes of sellers not being able to leave a bad buyer a negative is truly silly. I agree that a waiting period (for working things out or cooling off) would be good, but to not be able to leave true FB on a lousy/deadbeat/scammer buyer is just not going to help anyone.

If a buyer routinely tries to get both the product and a refund from sellers (some do this like a game to be won!), sellers deserve the right to be warned and to know about it.

So, if sellers can no longer leave negatives, I guess this means that buyers will now never be NARU'D unless they don't pay their eBay bill? After all, three negs could cause acct suspension and possibly NARU status. Now, it is carte blanche for the buyers. Rah-yay eBay, another ridiculous change that helps no one in the end.

Truly, what committee is making these decisions? To hear Meggie say that she is a buyer and seller also means nothing to me. If I was making her outrageous salary, then having a buyer scam me for $30 would not be a big deal. But on my income, it IS a big deal. I think sellers deserve to know when there is a problem buyer.

But then, I also predict continued migration off eBay in general by the smaller sellers. It sure is evident that eBay does not consider us to be all that important anymore!

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